Case 006

Yakutia, East Siberia — January 2023.

Somewhere in one of the coldest and most remote regions of Russia, something strange happens.

Miners of the massive Elga coal complex stand in the snow around a peculiar figure.

Human in shape.
But large.
Much larger than you would expect of an ordinary statue.

The figure appears to be kneeling.
In front of the body is something that strongly resembles a large shield.
Near the hands there seems to be a long object that could look like a sword.

But that is not what immediately draws attention.

Behind the figure are two enormous shapes.
Wings.

The figure resembles a giant warrior-angel.

Or perhaps we should be a little more careful for this Case.
It resembles something we would call an angel today.

One of the men is filming the scene.
And then something happens that suddenly turns a strange video into a mystery.

According to the man behind the camera, they uncovered the object during work with an excavator.
He sounds impressed.
He says he can hardly describe his emotions.
And he tells that others will come, which is why he and his colleagues quickly went to the spot before those people arrive.

In a short time, the images spread.
The nickname follows naturally:

The Elga Angel

But almost immediately an explanation comes.
An explanation that should end the mystery.

Only...
that is exactly where it begins for us.

The First Explanation

On January 25, 2023, the Yakutian media outlet Sakhaday quotes a spokeswoman for the Elga coal complex.

According to her, nothing special was excavated.
The story of the workers was supposedly a joke.

The winged figure is described as an ownerless sculpture that had been lying in the work camp for a long time.
A few miners supposedly just built an exciting story around it.

That is possible.
In fact: it is a simple explanation.
And with that, Case 006 could end here.

But three days later, another statement appears.
And this time it contains information the first one did not.

Three Days Later

On January 28, a second message follows.
Now the explanation reads that the figure was the work of an employee of the mine.
The object is described as a wooden angel.

Those two statements do not have to directly contradict each other.
An employee could have made a statue.
The statue could then have lain in the camp for a long time.
And eventually, no one might have felt responsible for it anymore.

That is possible.
But still, something has changed.

First we hear:
An ownerless sculpture that had been lying here for a long time.

Three days later:
A wooden figure made by an employee.

The second statement is much more specific.
And exactly because of that, new questions arise.

Who was that employee?
When did he make it?
Why did he make it?
Where was it located before the videos appeared?
Are there photos of the figure from the months or years before?
Where are photos of the creation process?

And why was the maker, as far as we have been able to find out, never brought forward publicly to definitively put the story to rest?

Perhaps such photos exist?
But we have not been able to find them.

We also haven't found any public material analysis.
No laboratory report.
No dating.
No independent analysis.

And then there is a much simpler question.

Where is the Elga Angel currently located?

The Miners Told Something Else

After the denial, a Russian editorial team decided to ask around further.
And then a second version of the story appeared.

From Belgorod, someone reported that her former son-in-law had worked in the crew dealing with the find.
According to what she had heard from him, the figure was genuinely found in the coal seam.
The excavator supposedly hadn't even damaged it.

The figure is said to have been about one and a half times the height of an average man.

That is important to formulate correctly.
This woman wasn't standing next to the excavator herself.
It is a secondhand testimony.

But then another story appeared.
Another source told what he claimed came from drillers from Tynda.

In it, a remarkable detail appears.
There was supposedly a cavity in the coal seam.
The excavator supposedly pulled the figure out of there.
Those present were said to have been stunned.

And later a helicopter supposedly arrived to take the object away.

This too is not a proven eyewitness account.
We cannot establish that this helicopter really came.
We cannot prove that the object came from that cavity.

But something is curious.
The stories that circulated outside the official statement kept returning to the same starting point:

the men supposedly really found something during the mining work.

From Here This Case Changes

There are now two paths.

The first is simple.
An employee made an impressive statue.
A number of workers decided to play a joke.
The internet did the rest.
Mystery solved.

Perhaps that is exactly what happened.

But The Cases exist to open the other door as well.
So from this point, we consciously assume an unproven premise.
Not because we have proven it to be true.
But because we want to discover where it leads us.

What if the miners spoke the truth?

What if their first reaction was genuine?
What if something really was uncovered during the work?
What if the stories of people around the workers contain a core of truth?

And...
what if the later statement was intended to ensure no one would look any further?

From that moment, our question changes completely.
No longer:
Who made the statue?

But:

What did they find beneath Elga?

The Cavity in the Coal Seam

The coal seams at Elga are geologically many millions of years old.

But that does not mean that everything that ever ends up in a crack, cave, or cavity within such a formation is automatically as old as the surrounding rock.
A much younger object can end up in an old geological structure later on.

So even if the story of the miners were completely true, we cannot say:
"It was in millions-of-years-old coal, therefore the creature is millions of years old."

That does not follow from it.

But the mention of a cavity opens another possibility.
What if that space already existed...
and something ever ended up in there?
Or consciously retreated there?

A hiding place.
A natural cave.
An opening between rock layers.

Perhaps therefore we should not ask:
How did this object get into the coal?

But:

Why would something ever have entered that cavity?

We will save that question for a moment.

Wood, Stone... Or Something Else?

The later statement calls it a wooden angel.

That would be easy to investigate.
Wood has a structure.
It can be examined microscopically.
When sufficient original organic material is present, age testing may be possible.

But as far as we have been able to find out, there is no public independent research report of the Elga object.
We therefore lack something important.
We do not know what it was really made of.

From a phone video, it is impossible to determine that reliably.
Perhaps it was just wood.
Perhaps concrete.
Perhaps stone.
Perhaps a combination.

But our Case asks a much stranger question.

What if it was not made at all?

What if that hard, weathered appearance was not the surface of a sculpture?
What if we are looking at something that was once biological...
but through cold, dehydration, minerals, sediment, pressure, and time has changed beyond recognition?

Then we have to go very far back.
To an ancient world.
And to one of the strangest passages from Genesis.

Before The Flood

Genesis 6 tells:

"When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose."

Then the Nephilim appear.

Genesis does not tell much more.
But ancient Jewish writings preserve a much more extensive story.

In 1 Enoch, these heavenly beings are called the Watchers.
They descend.
They take human women.
They teach humanity things that, according to the story, should not have been given to them.

And from their unions, extraordinary offspring arise.
Giants.
The earth becomes filled with violence.
The boundary between heaven and earth has been crossed.

And finally, the judgment comes.
The flood.

But for our Case, another ancient text becomes even more interesting.
A text of which fragments were actually found among the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Book of Giants

It is nowadays called the Book of Giants.
The text belongs to the same tradition world as the story of the Watchers.

And in it, we meet their offspring.
The giants begin to have strange dreams.
Ominous dreams.
They suspect that something terrible is approaching.

But they do not understand exactly what they have seen.
There is someone who can provide the answer.
Enoch.

Only Enoch is far away.
So someone has to reach him.
And for that, an extraordinary figure is chosen.

His name is:

Mahaway

Mahaway is connected in the handed-down tradition with Baraq'el, one of the rebellious Watchers.

But Mahaway possesses something that immediately sets him apart.
He can cover enormous distances.
He can go where others apparently cannot simply reach.

Because Mahaway...
can fly.

He Flew Like An Eagle

In an Aramaic fragment from Qumran, Mahaway is described during his journey.
He moves like a whirlwind.
And he flies:
"like an eagle."

The damaged Aramaic text uses language around his "hands", which within this context has been interpreted as wings.

But in a later tradition of the Book of Giants it becomes even more interesting.
There Mahaway's wings become more explicit.
And suddenly we have something that is hard to ignore for our Siberian Case.

Not because it proves the object at Elga was Mahaway.
It absolutely does not do that.
But because earlier we could ask ourselves one simple question:

Were the offspring of the Watchers ever imagined as winged at all?

And the answer turns out to be:
There is indeed an ancient tradition about one of them who could fly.
His name was Mahaway.

The Traveler

Mahaway flies to Enoch.
The tradition even suggests that this was not his first journey.
An earlier meeting seems to have already taken place, but the relevant part of the story has been lost.

That makes Mahaway special.
He seems to be a kind of messenger between two worlds.
Between the giants...
and Enoch.

He reaches places that are far away for others.
He crosses enormous desolate areas.
He flies like an eagle.
And finally he finds the man who can explain the dreams.

Mahaway Meets Enoch

Imagine the scene.
The world of the Watchers is about to disappear.
Their children just don't know it yet.
They have seen dreams.
They feel that something is coming.

And somewhere on the horizon, Mahaway appears.
He lands.
He seeks Enoch.
And he asks for an answer.

Enoch gives him the message no one wanted to hear.
Judgment is coming.
The corruption has been seen.
The earth will be cleansed.
The world of the Watchers and their offspring is coming to an end.

Mahaway is given the message.
He returns.
And brings the warning to the others.
The flood is coming.

But then...
our story breaks.

The Lost Ending Of Mahaway

This is important.
We do not have a completely preserved copy of the Book of Giants.
We have fragments.
Pieces of a story.
Sentences.
Scenes.
Names.
Dreams.
Journeys.

Because of this we know a lot about Mahaway's role.
But we do not have a fully preserved account of his personal final moments.

So we cannot say that an ancient text tells that Mahaway fled to Siberia.
No known text does that.
We also cannot say that he escaped the flood.
The broader tradition is exactly about the judgment on the Watchers and their offspring.

But one question remains unanswered due to the missing parts of the story.
Where was Mahaway when the judgment finally reached him?

And that becomes interesting for our Case.
Because if anyone from that world was capable of covering enormous distances...
it was Mahaway.

To The North

Siberia and the ancient Near East are not next to each other.
Elga is even located deep in East Siberia, in Yakutia.
We should not make that smaller than it is.

But they are also not on opposite sides of the earth.
There is no ocean between them.
From the Near East, one enormous Eurasian landmass stretches via the Caucasus, the steppes and Central Asia ever further to the north and east.

Kazakhstan borders Russia directly.
Mongolia lies against Siberia.
Further east lies Yakutia.

For an ancient human such a journey would be enormous.
But our question is exactly not about an ordinary human.
The ancient tradition describes Mahaway as someone who flew.

So suppose...
Enoch's warning was true.
Mahaway knew what was coming.
He had heard the message himself.
He knew that water would destroy the world of the Watchers.

What would a creature that could fly do?

Perhaps the same as any other living creature when the water starts to rise.
Flee.

Suppose He Flew

From here we leave the ancient text.
What follows is not in Genesis.
It is not in Enoch.
It is not in the Book of Giants.
This is pure Case-speculation.

But suppose...
Mahaway sees the first signs.
The sky changes.
The rain begins.
The water rises.

He knows what it means.
Because he has spoken to Enoch.
He himself has brought the warning to the others.

So he spreads his wings.
And flees.
Not randomly.
But ever further from the water.
Over mountains.
Over plains.
Over enormous empty areas.
Ever further to the north and east.
Looking for higher ground.
Looking for a place where the water cannot reach him.

Perhaps he eventually reaches a cold, inhospitable region.
A world of mountains, rocks and openings in the earth.
And there he finds something.
A cave.

The Refuge

Perhaps the opening was high enough.
Perhaps it seemed as if the water could not get there.
Perhaps it was a natural cavity in the rock.
A dry space.
A final refuge.

Mahaway enters.
For the first time he no longer has to fly.
Outside the world rages on.
Water.
Wind.
Rain.
Cold.

Perhaps he made it.
Perhaps this is truly the place where he can survive the judgment.

But a new problem arises.
The temperature drops.
His body is exhausted.
His wings are soaked.
There is no food.
No fire.
No other Watcher.
No other giant.

Only darkness.
And cold.

The Final Posture

Now look again at the Elga figure.
The posture is curious.
He does not seem to be lying flat on the ground.
He seems almost...
kneeling.

Why?
An artist could of course have made him exactly like that.

But within our hypothesis a much darker image emerges.
What if he didn't fall into the cave?
What if he was still alive there?
Perhaps he placed his shield in front of him.
Perhaps he used his weapon for support.
Perhaps he eventually sank to his knees.

Exhausted.
Wounded.
Freezing.

Perhaps he waited.
Perhaps he prayed.
Perhaps he thought back to the words of Enoch.
The words he had brought himself.
Judgment is coming.

And somewhere in a dark cave at the end of the world...
that judgment eventually reached him too.
Not by drowning.
But by cold.

He Froze

Slowly his body stops.
The wings no longer move.
The sword stays where it lies.
The shield still stands before him.
His body stiffens.
And finally everything freezes.

Perhaps he was left behind exactly like that.
Kneeling.

Years become centuries.
Centuries become millennia.
Sediment enters.
Water seeps through cracks.
Minerals are deposited.
The space changes.
The original entrance disappears.
Rock breaks.
Other layers are added on top.

The place where once a cave or cavity was, becomes part of a landscape no one remembers anymore.

Cold.
Pressure.
Minerals.
Thaw.
Freezing again.
Thousands of years.

Until what it once was is barely recognizable.
Until it looks like...
stone.
Or wood.
Or a sculpture.

The World Forgets Him

Civilizations come and go.
Empires arise.
Empires disappear.
The stories remain.

Genesis preserves a few lines about the Nephilim.
Enoch preserves the story of the Watchers.
The Book of Giants preserves fragments about Mahaway.

But no one knows where his body is.
Perhaps it no longer exists.
Perhaps it never existed.
Perhaps Mahaway was always just a figure from an old story.

But suppose...
that somewhere beneath the frozen landscape something really was left behind.
No one looks for it.
No one knows it is there.

Until...
January 2023.

The Excavator

Thousands of years after the entrance to the hypothetical refuge disappeared, the area is broken open.
Not by archaeologists.
Not by scientists.
By miners.

An excavator works its way through the terrain.
Stone.
Earth.
Coal.
And then...
something else.

The machine opens a space.
A cavity.
Men look inside.
And there is an enormous figure.
Kneeling.
With something that looks like a shield.
Something that looks like a sword.
And behind his back:
two enormous wings.

A phone appears.
The camera turns on.
A miner films.
He tells that they found it.
He says he can barely describe his emotions.
And he says that people are on their way.

Then Comes The Helicopter

According to a later indirect story, drillers supposedly told that a helicopter arrived next.
We don't know if that is true.
There is no public flight record that we have been able to link to it.
No confirmed recording on which we see the object disappear into a helicopter.

But within our hypothesis we ask the question again:
Suppose it did happen.

What do you do when miners unexpectedly find something that seems impossible?
You don't leave it among the excavators.
You secure the location.
You take the object away.
You examine it.
And meanwhile, something has to be told to the outside world.

"It Was Just A Statue"

The first statement appears.
An ownerless sculpture.
It had been lying in the camp for a long time.

Three days later the story becomes more specific.
An employee supposedly made it.
A wooden angel.

Perhaps that is simply the truth.

But within our chosen hypothesis, that development takes on a different meaning.

A strange object is found.
Workers film it before others arrive.
The footage escapes to the outside world.
The story spreads.

And then a completely mundane explanation appears.
It is art.

No reason to look any further.
No reason for researchers.
No reason for journalists.
No reason for archaeologists.
Case closed.

Or...
was that exactly the intention?

The Problem Of The Maker

There would be one person who could easily destroy our entire Case.
The artist.

Show him.
Show his tools.
Show a photo of the sculpture half-finished.
Let him explain why he made a huge winged warrior.
Show a photo from 2021 showing the angel standing next to the work camp.

Then our mysterious theory immediately becomes a lot less interesting.

Perhaps that evidence exists.
But as far as we have been able to find out, we do not have it.

And so one possibility — however unlikely — remains on the table.

What if there never was an artist?

The Material Would Change Everything

That is why Case 006 ultimately does not revolve around stories.
Not around rumors.
Not even around Enoch.
It revolves around one thing:
the object itself.

If it is wood, examine it.
If it is modern wood, we are done.
If it is concrete, analyze it.
If there are tool marks, show them.

But imagine if a laboratory discovered something completely different.

Cell structures.
Bone.
Minimized or mineralized tissue.
Remains of feathers.
Original biological material.

Then this Case would cease to be an internet mystery in one second.
Then the question would no longer be:
"Who made the Elga Angel?"

But:
"WHAT WAS THE ELGA ANGEL?"

And Then Mahaway Remains

We have no proof that the figure is Mahaway.
No inscription.
No DNA.
No dating.
No archaeological context connecting him to the Book of Giants.

And yet the comparison remains uncomfortably fascinating.

An ancient tradition tells of a world before the judgment.
About Watchers.
About their extraordinary offspring.
About one of them who could fly.
A being that could cover enormous distances.
A being that met Enoch.
A being that knew the water was coming.

Mahaway.

And thousands of years later, deep in the cold east of that same enormous Eurasian landmass, miners film a gigantic winged figure.

They say:
we dug this up.

The Frozen Watcher?

Perhaps it was just a statue.
Perhaps an employee made it.
Perhaps the miners are still laughing at everyone who took their joke seriously.

That is possible.
But The Cases are not made to only open the easiest door.

So one more time...
imagine the men spoke the truth.

Imagine the cavity really existed.
Imagine the creature fled from the water thousands of years ago.
Imagine it could fly.
Imagine it traveled further and further.
Over mountains.
Over plains.
Further and further north and east.
Until it found a hiding place.
A cave.

The water did not get him.
But the cold did.

It sank to its knees.
It froze.
The cave closed.
The world forgot it.

Until an excavator broke open the darkness again thousands of years later.
And a group of miners looked inside.

Perhaps they saw a statue.
Perhaps they saw something else.

And perhaps one of them, without realizing it himself, let us look for a few seconds at something that was never meant for our eyes.

A final remnant of a world that, according to Genesis, was destroyed by water.
A world of Watchers.
Giants.
And one winged messenger who had heard the warning from Enoch himself.

Was it Mahaway?

We have no proof.
Perhaps we never will.

But somewhere perhaps the answer to one simple question still lies:
Where is the object now?

Because if the Elga Angel still exists, we need no new stories.
No new rumors.
No new theories.

We only need one thing.

Open the crate.
Examine the material.
And tell us what the miners really pulled out of the earth.